A US official warned Hamas would face “total annihilation” if all hostages — living and dead — were not returned to Israel as the terror group failed to return the body of slain mother Shiri Bibas on Thursday.
Adam Boehler, President Trump’s special envoy for hostages, issued the stark threat hours after the Israel Defense Forces positively identified the bodies of Bibas’ children, Ariel and Kfir, and hostage Oded Lifshitz — but also received an “anonymous, unidentified body.”
“It’s horrific. It’s a clear violation and if I have one piece of advice for Hamas now, it’s ‘You need to release her body immediately,’” Boehler told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Boehler called for the immediate release of all hostages including the bodies of four Americans killed during their captivity in the Gaza Strip and Edan Alexander, a New Jersey native believed to be alive.
“If I were (Hamas), I would release everybody or they are going to face total annihilation right now,” Boehler warned.
Boehler recommended Israel make demands of Hamas through “every country that’s coordinating” to get the remaining hostages and bodies back to the Jewish state.
The terror group was expected to transfer Bibas’ body Thursday morning during a propaganda-filled exchange, parading the bodies in the Gaza Strip, but Israeli officials revealed her body was not one of the four inside the black coffins.
“During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body,” the IDF said.
“This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages,” the defense forces added. “We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the body Israel received Thursday was of a Gazan woman and not Bibas.
He also said Hamas would pay a “full price” for the “cruel and malicious violation” of the deal.
Bibas, her husband, Yarden, and their two sons, 4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Kfir, were abducted by Hamas from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
All four family members were listed by Hamas as among the 33 living hostages expected to be released in the first stage of the cease-fire deal that went into effect on Jan. 19.
Yarden Bibas was freed to Red Cross workers alongside French-Israeli national Ofer Calderon, 54, in Khan Younis on Feb. 1.
Boehler joined a growing chorus of Israeli and US officials calling Hamas’ stunt Thursday a “violation” of the deal.
“I don’t know what they thought when they put the body of somebody else in a coffin and said that it is the mother of two kids who had been brutally murdered,” he said. “Whether they thought Israel wouldn’t have found that or not, but it’s absolutely stunning.”
“The question is, why would they do this? I think probably the answer is, she was so brutally murdered that she is being hidden or the body has been disposed of and they can’t get her back.”
“I wouldn’t say they are sophisticated people, they’re brutal murderers and they didn’t think through it, quite frankly, I’m sure.”
Boehler said the Bibas family members were murdered by a “particularly militant splinter group.”
“You’re talking about the worst of the worst here,” he said. “When you’re talking about worse than Hamas, but these are people who can brutally murder a 9-month-old and somebody who would be 4.”
Israeli officials called Boehler, US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz on Thursday to share the discovery.
Israeli forces said the young Bibas brothers were killed by terrorists in November 2023 when Ariel was 4 and Kfir was just 10 months old.
That grim assessment is based on available intelligence and forensic findings, the IDF said.
